TD has no regrets over claims which prompted Morris Tribunal

A Labour TD today said he has no regrets that unsubstantiated allegations against a senior member of An Garda Síochána led to the setting up of the Morris Tribunal.

Brendan Howlin told the inquiry that although he did not know the original source of the accusations, the first five reports from the hearing which is investigating garda corruption in Donegal have been justified.

Mr Howlin, Labour’s justice spokesman, said he was first aware of the claims when the matter was raised by Fine Gael’s Jim Higgins in the Dáil in May 1999.

He said this was followed with a telephone call from criminal lawyer Martin Giblin in October that year in which he maintained the McBrearty family were being victimised and an individual had been framed for murder.

More allegations were made to Mr Howlin in June 2000 regarding Det Sgt John White, who was sacked from the force in December.

It was claimed that it was White’s objective to give the McBreartys as much grief as possible, that he was being ’looked after’, and how there was a real concern an internal investigation, headed by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty, was compromised with White in a position to blackmail senior officers.

The allegations, which are totally unsubstantiated, have been strongly denied by Mr Carty and form the basis of the Morris Tribunal.

The justice spokesman said seeds of concern had been sewn in May, amplified in June, and that he was concerned by this time the only way of getting a fully accountable inquiry would have been a tribunal.

The tribunal quizzed Mr Howlin on whether he knew the anonymous allegations told to him by Mr Giblin had been based on a fax originally sent from the office of Frank McBrearty Snr.

“In essence I placed my trust in the judgement of a very senior criminal lawyer whose character I had checked with a colleague,” he replied.

“The issue was my source of information was somebody of substance, of trust and whom I checked to be trustworthy.

“And secondly, if the information that was imparted to me resulted in this tribunal I think the first five reports of it were well justified, justified the establishment of it, so the net result is certainly one I have no regrets about.”

Mr Howlin and Jim Higgins, then Fine Gael’s spokesman on justice, pressed the government to investigate the accusations, eventually leading to the setting up of the Morris Tribunal.

The probe is currently trying the establish the source of anonymous allegations.